Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me but to Masashi Kishimoto.


JUUICHI

(Eleven)


Sakura really hoped she had heard wrong. Next to her, she could tell the red head wished for the same thing, judging by how all the color left her face and she appeared as white as snow. Fresh tears had begun to pool in her ruby orbs.

"Yes, he's dead" Suigetsu repeated, this time his voice was traced with sarcasm. He looked very annoyed.

Karin immediately brushed her tears away, rolling up her fist to land a firm punch on his face. She didn't feel at all satisfied when part of his face melted from the impact, she felt that wasn't enough of a punishment.

"Don't joke like that!"

"You are the one that can sense chakra and couldn't even sense his?"

They began to yell back and forth about Sasuke's weak condition. Forgetting that they were not alone.

At that specific moment, relief washed through the rosette's body at knowing that the Uchiha was still alive. Juugo appeared exhausted, and thus didn't take the time to listen to their argument. He kept walking, determined to get them back to the hotel, Sakura and Akito right behind him.

Sakura never removed her eyes from Sasuke's sleeping face. She traced with her eyes every cut he got from his battle, every stain of blood and every bruise. Feeling hypnotized, she followed them mutely. Akito next to her frowning at the Uchiha's battered state. Maybe tonight he would not have a word with the man about his failed attempts to discover an antidote.

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By the end of the day Karin had already patched up the beaten Uchiha. Both his arms had been bandaged, down to his knuckles. Around his torso, the red head had smeared ointment on his burnt skin. His legs were also wrapped in bandages due to the several weapons that had pierced his skin. There were bandages covering his eyes, after some time they became tinted by blood that still oozed from his closed eyes. All in all he looked like a mummy in the little girl's opinion.

Next to his sleeping body, Karin was starting to falls asleep. She had removed her glasses and had them tucked on her shirt's collar, resting her chin against the palm of her hand. Sakura was kneeling on the other side of his bed, resting her head again her folded arms. She mentally counted each breath he took up until the number she knew, which was only a hundred, then started all over. The other boys had left to buy for something to eat, taking an unwilling Akito. Of course, after a while both girls realized that they probably found something more interesting, since it took them a long time to return.

The red head sat up in alert for the hundredth time when she heard Sasuke cough loudly. His face was crunched up in pain, twisting to the side that hurt him the most in attempt to make his own pain go away. To Karin's relieve, the young man's fever had gone down, but he still slept uncomfortably from the pain.

There was a soft knock coming from the other side of the door. It only meant the guys had come back from their grocery shopping after hours of absence.

The silver haired nuke nin opened the door a tad, enough to poke his head inside. He held a paper bag in his hand and motioned Karin with his head to come outside.

"Come on Sakura, time to eat," the muttered tiredly, taking the time to stretch her sore muscles from sitting so long on the same spot.

"I want to stay with nii-chan!"

Karin sighed, "you can come back after you're done eating something. He's not going anywhere, when you're done you can come back"

The little roseate wanted to disagree with her, but her stomach said otherwise. Grumbling loudly in protest, Sakura had no other option but to go eat first then come back to Sasuke.

They left the bedroom quietly and followed Suigetsu to their bedroom.

He didn't seem as beaten as Sasuke, after some time nursing himself, he was back to normal. Juugo as well, considering he was mostly tired from the journey. It had been Sasuke who battled after all.

"So did he kill Itachi?" Karin asked Suigetsu as she took a small bite of her onigiri. He answered by shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head, the food was still in his mouth so he couldn't really answer right away. He took a large gulp of water to wash down the food.

"We don't know," he answered quickly before taking another bit of his own pickled plum onigiri. Acting almost as if he'd been depraved of food for days.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Well–" Suigetsu glared at her for shouting, even if she was just in front of him. Their orange haired companion was now wide awake for the conversation, "when Itachi fell unconscious, Sasuke couldn't check. Before Juugo and I could get any closer to Sasuke's brother, some Akatsuki weirdo wearing an orange mask came and got him. Then they disappeared"

"We don't know if he's dead" Juugo finished for him.

"Well couldn't you sense his chakra?"

With an annoyed look, Suigetsu answered briskly to her question, "I'm not a sensor. Either his chakra was too weak like Sasuke's or he was dead"

"That will only have Sasuke-kun more paranoid"

"No kidding," he scoffed, "he chewed our ass before passing out"

They took their time eating. Continuing to discuss about their next move or if they were going to wait until Sasuke got better. Karin of course thought about tracking, but she didn't want to leave the Uchiha alone in case he needed nursing.

The young roseate chucked down the rest of her orange juice along with the rest of her salmon onigiri. She ignored their constant blabbering, mostly concerned with getting back to her nii-chan than anything else. But before she could even make it out the door, Karin's shrilling voice stopped her in mid-step.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Back with Sasuke-niichan"

Perhaps it was Sakura's innocent face that didn't make Karin debate on that matter.

"I guess we need to turn in for the night anyways and Sasuke-kun wants you to stay besides him," the girl muttered out, still feeling a bit jealous by that fact, "try not to wake him up though, try to give him as much space as possible."

"OK!" the little roseate left immediately, slamming the door behind her. Akito jumped slightly, but that didn't wake him from his slumber. This only left Karin a bit fearful if the little girl accidentally slammed the door to Sasuke's room as well.

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She sat quietly watching how his breath came out evenly, plump lips trembling slightly whenever he inhaled sharply due to the pain.

It was around two in the morning and Sakura was still awake, never taking her eyes off of his sleeping form. It comforted her to know that he was safe, that the battle with his older brother didn't cost his life. With his return she felt better, but at the same time she felt sad.

Sasuke had counted on the two medics to come up with an antidote to their problem. Having no solution was definitely an obstacle. By no means could they leave in search for Naruto, and no one knew if the blonde was dead or alive. It made her feel once again weak and useless, relying on the protection the Uchiha supplied them with. She thought that with in the few days she was alone with Akito, she would come up with a solution, but it seems that every guess they had was wrong. Now they were empty handed, with no leads as to what could be of help to their dilemma.

She felt trapped in her own body. Feeling as if she was shrinking up to a point where she could no longer move. A feeling of being diminutive and that everything she did was minor and inadequate. This sentiment she hasn't felt since she was twelve and which she didn't expect to come back.

Sakura took the sleeping Uchiha's bandaged hand, rubbing his palm against her smooth round cheek. His chakra alone had worked to keep her thoughts in control, which was a good thing because that meant she didn't need Akito's help to think.

"Sasuke-kun"

She didn't realize she had fallen asleep until a warm hand was pressing gently against her head. It was such a tender caress, as if the person touching her expected for her to turn into dust at any given moment.

Soft mumbles left her puckered lips. Sakura refused to move from her comfy spot and just to please the stranger petting her.

"Sakura," said girl only tightened her hold on Sasuke's arm, flushed against her soft mounds. The action only made him far more uncomfortable, "wake up Sakura"

"Hmm?"

"Your body changed"

"Wha–?" emerald eyes fluttered open, only to stare at his not so stoic expression.

Sasuke had removed the bandages that once had covered his eyes. There was still blood smeared across his cheek from him trying to wipe away the blood droplets. He was trying to look away from her form with an angry scowl upon his face.

In record time, the roseate was away from the man and wrapped around the bed covers.

"S-Sorry"

Sasuke opted to ignore her apology, as well as the heavy blush forming on his and her face, "Did you two find an antidote?"

"No, we didn't"

"Did you two manage to figure something out?"

That irritated look in Sakura's face told him what he wanted to know. And obviously he was not happy with the answer.

In his battle with Itachi, he had found out that the hyperactive knucklehead was indeed taken by the Akatsuki. Apparently they had yet to remove the Jinchuuriki from him, due to some complications, but that didn't mean he was entirely safe.

Now Sakura was the one that actually wanted to save the idiot. In her state, she obviously can't do that. And Sasuke, well he doesn't want to take detours from his real mission.

He knew. He could feel it. His brother wasn't dead and that only meant that his mission in life was not complete. Helping Naruto would take away his miniscule chances he might have of fighting his brother. Even helping Sakura was holding him back.

Sasuke flung his shirt to her, motioning her to put it on. It took him a moment to order his words so they would come out right when he spoke them to her.

The moment he was about to speak, was the moment a shrilling scream broke throughout the whole building. A frozen, wide eyed Sakura stared at the door, the exact moment an adult Akito decided to barge right in holding a pillow to cover his privates. He pressed his ear against the door for a moment, listening how Karin's voice and foot falls got farther away.

"That was the loudest scream I've ever heard coming from Karin," Sasuke mused. The other man's face suddenly turned red from the embarrassment.

"That was actually me"

"What?"

Sakura's giggles only made it worst for him, "she was hugging me! I got scared! I didn't expect to turn back when I went to sleep tonight"

The annoyed Akito soon found comfort by sitting next to a still giggling Sakura. He tried to shut her up by glaring at her, but obviously he was as red as a tomato and she couldn't take him seriously.

Deciding to ignore her, Akito turned to the Uchiha who was once again wiping the tears of blood coming from his eyes. His eyes ached the moment his sharingan activated itself. A natural response when he is pushed into panic mode. That was obviously triggered the moment he heard Akito's loud screaming.

"What's with your eyes?"

By now the pink haired woman was over with her laughing and had immediately rushed to Sasuke's aid. She tried healing him or at least attempting to stop the hemorrhage.

"I can't use my sharingan for now–"

"Sharingan?"

"His kekkei genkai," Sakura explained, "you know, a bloodline limit–"

"Yeah, yeah. I know those," the still baffled Akito interrupted with a wave of his hand, "One of my team members was from the Yuki clan, but I just didn't know Sasuke had a family trait–I've just never seen a dojutsu user"

Akito's frown then turned into a sly smile. Leaning closer to Sasuke he whispered his thoughts, "I think I have a new lead for a cure"

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To Be Continued...

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